Google’s venture arm recruits a Harvard/Tesaro vet to help plant the seeds for a second oncology R&D revolution

Sridhar Ramaswamy. GV

October 28, 2019 08:59 AM EDTUpdated 09:10 AM

Google’s venture arm recruits a Harvard/Tesaro vet to help plant the seeds for a second oncology R&D revolution

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

Oncology R&D has been exploding over the past 5 years, and now Google’s venture arm is preparing to place a few explosives to help with the revolution — relying on a new recruit in the Cambridge/Boston branch to assist in fostering the movement.

Eight months after the high-profile scientist and Agios founder David Schenkein started his third career act in biotech, teaming up with Krishna Yeshwant as a general partner in charge of the life sciences portfolio at GV, they’re bringing on board their second entrepreneur-in-residence to help strategize their approach to investing in cancer research. And he has some deep experience in the oncology field.

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Minoryx and Sperogenix ink an exclusive license agreement to develop and commercialize leriglitazone in China

Pharmcube

September 23, 2020 – Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai (China) and Mataró, Barcelona (Spain)

Minoryx will receive an upfront and milestone payments of up to $78 million, as well as double digit royalties on annual net sales

Sperogenix will receive exclusive rights to develop and commercialize leriglitazone for the treatment of X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD), a rare life-threatening neurological condition

Secretary of health and human services Alex Azar speaking in the Rose Garden at the White House (Photo: AFP)

September 20, 2020 10:16 AM EDTUpdated September 22, 07:41 AM

Pharma

Trump’s HHS claims absolute authority over the FDA, clearing path to a vaccine EUA

Arsalan Arif

Publisher & Founder

The top career staff at the FDA has vowed not to let politics overrule science when looking at vaccine data this fall. But Alex Azar, who happens to be their boss’s boss, apparently won’t even give them a chance to stand in the way.

In a new memorandum issued Tuesday last week, the HHS chief stripped the FDA and other health agencies under his purview of their rule making ability, asserting all such power “is reserved to the Secretary.” Sheila Kaplan of the New York Times first obtained and reported the details of the September 15 bulletin.

FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn at the White House (AP Images)

September 22, 2020 04:47 PM EDTUpdated 12 hours ago

Regulatory

Coronavirus

Under fire, FDA to issue stricter guidance for Covid-19 vaccine EUA this week — report

Jason Mast

Associate Editor

The FDA has been insisting for months that a Covid-19 vaccine had to be at least 50% effective – a measure of transparency meant to shore public trust in the agency and in a vaccine that had been brought forward at record speed and record political pressure. But now, with concerns of a Trump-driven authorization arriving before the election, the agency may be raising the bar.

The FDA is set to release new guidance that would raise safety and efficacy requirements for a vaccine EUA above earlier guidance and above the criteria used for convalescent plasma or hydroxychloroquine, The Washington Post reported. Experts say this significantly lowers the odds of an approval before the election on November 3, which Trump has promised despite vocal concerns from public health officials, and could help shore up public trust in the agency and any eventual vaccine.

ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Clinical Operations Lead

Vigeo Therapeutics

Cambridge, MA

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Patrick Enright, Longitude co-founder (Longitude)

September 23, 2020 07:31 AM EDTUpdated 09:43 AM

Venture

As its biotechs hit the pandemic exit, Longitude raises $585M for new neuro, cancer, aging and orphan-focused fund

Jason Mast

Associate Editor

The years have been kind to Longitude Capital. This year, too.

A 2006 spinout of Pequot Capital, its founders started their new firm just four years before the parent company would go under amid insider trading allegations. Their first life sciences fund raised $325 million amid the financial crisis, they added a second for $385 million and then in, 2016, a third for $525 million. In the last few months, the pandemic biotech IPO boom netted several high-value exits from those funds, as Checkmate, Vaxcyte, Inozyme and Poseida all went public.

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September 23, 2020 07:00 AM EDTUpdated 07:30 AM

Cell/Gene Tx

Manufacturing

Scoop: ARCH’s Bob Nelsen is backing an mRNA upstart that promises to upend the entire manufacturing side of the global business

John Carroll

Editor & Founder

For the past 2 years, serial entrepreneur Igor Khandros relied on a small network of friends and close insiders to supply the first millions he needed to fund a secretive project to master a new approach to manufacturing mRNA therapies.

Right now, he says, he has a working “GMP-in-a-box” prototype for a new company he’s building — after launching 3 public companies — which plans to spread this contained, precise manufacturing tech around the world with a set of partners. He’s raised $60 million, recruited some prominent experts. And not coincidentally, he’s going semi-public with this just as a small group of pioneers appears to be on the threshold of ushering in the world’s first mRNA vaccines to fight a worldwide pandemic.

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September 23, 2020 10:59 AM EDTUpdated 11:18 AM

R&D

PhII Alzheimer's failure deals new blow to Roche, AC Immune — but the tau hypothesis is far from dead

Amber Tong

Editor

The leading anti-tau antibody has failed its first Phase II testing, casting a shadow on a popular target (just trailing amyloid beta) for Alzheimer’s disease.

Roche and AC Immune are quick to acknowledge disappointment in the topline readout, which suggested that semorinemab did not reduce cognitive decline among patients with early Alzheimer’s disease, who are either just starting to have symptoms or have mild manifestations.

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September 23, 2020 09:42 AM EDTUpdated 11:45 AM

Coronavirus

Covid-19 roundup: J&J begins pivotal Phase III trial for vaccine; Controversial human challenge trials to begin in London — report

Nicole DeFeudis

Associate Editor

Amber Tong

Editor

Johnson & Johnson announced it’s beginning a pivotal Phase III trial for its Covid-19 candidate, JNJ-78436735 — the first single-dose vaccine in this stage.

The Phase III trial, dubbed ENSEMBLE, will enroll 60,000 patients worldwide, making it the largest Phase III study of a Covid-19 vaccine to date. J&J said the candidate achieved positive interim results in a Phase I/IIa study, which will be published “imminently.” There’s a possibility that the first batches will be ready for potential emergency use in early 2021, according to the biotech.

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ENDPOINTS CAREERS

Director of Regulatory Affairs

Recursion Pharmaceuticals

Salt Lake City, UT

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Isaac Veinbergs, Libra CEO

September 23, 2020 08:00 AM EDTUpdated 08:21 AM

Venture

Startups

With $29M in Series A, Boehringer-backed Libra looks to tackle neurodegeneration through cellular cleaning

Max Gelman

Associate Editor

Can the natural process by which cells clean out toxic proteins be harnessed to create potential treatments for neurodegenerative disorders?

That’s the question Libra Therapeutics will be trying to answer, as the new biotech officially launched Wednesday morning with $29 million in Series A financing. The company has three preclinical programs at the ready, with its lead candidate targeting ALS and frontotemporal dementia. But CEO Isaac Veinbergs said he hopes to develop therapies for a wide range of diseases, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s.

Vas Narasimhan (AP Images)

September 23, 2020 07:35 AM EDTUpdated 07:56 AM

Cell/Gene Tx

Regulatory

UPDATED: Still held down by clinical hold, Novartis' Zolgensma falls further behind Biogen and Roche as FDA asks for a new pivotal study

Amber Tong

Editor

Last October, the FDA slowed down Novartis’ quest to extend its gene therapy to older spinal muscular atrophy patients by slapping a partial hold on intrathecal administration. Almost a year later, the hold is still there, and regulators are adding another hurdle required for regulatory submission: a new pivotal confirmatory study.

The new requirement — which departs significantly from Novartis’ prior expectations — will likely stretch the path to registration beyond 2021, when analysts were expecting a BLA submission. That could mean more time for Biogen to reap Spinraza revenues and Roche to ramp up sales of Evrysdi in the absence of a rival.

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